26th October 2012 Archive

The Surface tablet's Touch Cover is eerily reminiscent of typing on a ZX81, The Register can report after fondling one of the elusive (to non Microsoft-adoring press) computers at the Australian launch of Windows 8.

The reputation of possibly America's least-favorite fondlers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), has taken yet another hit with the discovery that its shoddy security allows passengers in its PreCheck system to pick their own security status.

Chinese telecoms kit maker Huawei narrowly avoided the wrath of US investigators last year after a business described by Reuters as a Huawei supplier* offered to sell American-made equipment to Iran in a deal that would have broken sanctions, it has emerged.

China’s stranglehold on the world’s rare earth supply appears to be relaxing, with its largest producer of light rare earths forced to halt some of its operations for a month in an attempt to stop prices slipping further.

Chinese car manufacturer BYD will help to make the streets of London just a little bit greener after signing a deal with the capital’s second largest minicab service to supply the city’s first fleet of electric taxis.

Microsoft launches its Xbox 360 SmartGlass software today, a free app that allows the console's film, games and music services to be tapped from a mobile device. It becomes an informative second screen to display additional content, or simply acts as a helpful go-between twixt a user's console, mobile and PC platform.

IT law specialist Clare Murray of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that cost-cutting requirements and the changing needs of organisations are behind a rise in the number of IT outsourcing contract renegotiations. She said she expects the trend to continue.

Over the past couple of weeks, we've had an entertaining time deciding on the vilest Bond villain and the ultimate movie Bond, so the the time has come to pose perhaps the most critical 007 question: What's the best James Bond film?

My in-laws are a boisterous clan, or so it seems to a reserved half-Scot like myself. You see, they are French... well, more of a volatile Spanish-Italian-Latin mix with an explosive temper born from a Mediterranean climate, macho upbringing and unspeakable experiences in revolutionary Algeria.

“It’s the ultimate expression of a Windows PC,” says Windows chief Steven Sinofsky... or “a compromised, confusing product”, according to Apple’s Tim Cook, who has not used one. This is Surface RT, Microsoft’s first own-brand tablet, which went on sale today.

Keep it simple – if only the villains of James Bond had learned that lesson in Evil Medical School. All too often, though, the Ernst Stavro Blofelds and Karl Strombergs of 007’s world succumb to their maniacal tendencies and plot ridiculously complicated plans to off Bond or take over the world, where a simple bullet or well-targeted nuke might have worked. Never mind respect for the laws of society - these Einsteins have no respect for the laws of physics.

You could be forgiven for thinking the front-page of Wikipedia is sponsored by the Gibraltar Tourist Board, with the territory given the kind of product placement large corporations can only dream of. Now Wikipedia's self-styled "spiritual leader" Jimmy Wales has publicly stated that he wants the Wikipedians' curious enthusiasm for the tiny British territory to be reined in.

EDF Energy is the latest of the UK's Big Six energy suppliers to announce brutal price rises, in this case an increase no less than 10.8 per cent - yet the company openly admits that energy prices would call for a 2 per cent rise at most. Why on Earth does the firm think it's OK to implement a price rise almost six times that figure?

Apple has complied with a UK court order by admitting on its website that Samsung's Galaxy Tab did not rip off the patented iPad design. High Court Judge Birss had instructed Apple to publish a statement online and in print after ruling that the South Korean electronics giant had not infringed Cupertino's patent.

QLogic reported revenues of $117.9m for its second fiscal 2013 quarter ending 30 September, down 13.5 per cent on the year-ago quarter, and down 9.6 per cent on the first 2013 quarter. It made a profit of $11.9m, way down on the year-ago quarter's $28.7m and the preceding quarter's $18.4m. The business is shrinking.

Knock-off iPad manufacturer GooPad has followed Apple and unveiled a mini version of its i-style slate. It packs similar specs, ish, but as you can imagine, has a far cheaper price than the real thing.

A titanic storm wracking the atmosphere of Saturn, ringed giant planet of the outer Solar System, resulted in an "unprecedented belch of energy" and an associated super-enormous emission of ethylene gas "the origin of which is a mystery", according to NASA boffins.

Booming mobile sales have powered record profits at Samsung in Q3. Samsung published a preliminary statement of their financials yesterday [PDF] which shows a 91 per cent increase in net profit compared to the same three months last year.

There are a fair few people cursing their displays and tablets this morning after a series of outages took down Google's App Engine, as well as the Tumblr blogging site and a host of smaller operators.

Microsoft needs apps. The success of the new, touch-centric Start Screen of Windows 8 and Windows RT depends on building a thriving app ecosystem to compare with the iOS App Store or Google Play. But if one developer's experience is any indication, actually getting an app into the Windows Store is a lot harder than you might expect.